The Most Satisfying Vegetable of All

Every summer gardeners in New Hampshire eagerly await the harvest of that first juicy, sun-ripened tomato. Tomatoes epitomize summer for many of us, and we spend the remainder of the year cursing tasteless supermarket tomatoes even though we know when we buy them that in no way will they approach the explosion of flavor contained in a just-picked, homegrown tomato.

 

About the middle of winter, I start dreaming of summer tomatoes and planning my strategy for producing the best, longest lasting harvest possible. In NH, it’s not safe to plant tomatoes outside before Memorial Day. After that, it takes most varieties a minimum of 40-60 days to produce ripe fruit. Which means that it’s often late July before it’s time to pick. Short, cool days in September slow production drastically. All in all, it’s a short season and you have to be clever to get the most out of it.

 

The first thing to know when growing tomatoes is where you’re going to put them. Tomatoes require a lot of light, especially for setting fruit. Pick a site with full sun all day if possible. If not, pick a site with a southern exposure so your plants will get direct sunlight for the greatest possible length of time. If that doesn’t work, five-gallon white pails placed in the sun and filled with soilless potting mix are just fine.

 

If you’re growing tomatoes in a sunny spot in the garden, you should know that well-drained soil that is easy to work is best. If drainage is a problem, grow in raised beds. Even if drainage is not a problem, raised beds tend to dry out and warm up faster in the spring than convention garden beds.

 

Many hopeful gardeners plant tomatoes out before the danger of frost is past and use Walls O’Water to provide frost protection. Tomato plants don’t grow well until soil temperatures reach 60 degrees F, so Walls O’Water don’t allow your plants to gain a jump on the season unless black plastic has been used prior to planting to raise the soil temperature.

 

Black plastic not only raises soil temperatures early in the growing season, it also helps to suppress weeds and conserve moisture during dry periods. Be sure that soil is moist before laying plastic in the spring. Thick plastic will generally last 3 years if handled carefully and Walls O’Water much longer.

 

Once you know where to plant and how to extend the season, it’s time to think about what varieties to choose. It’s handy to know that for fresh fruit you should plant 3 to 5 plants per person, and for home processing you should plant 5 to 10 plants per person.

 

All those glossy pictures in seed catalogs can be intimidating. One of the best ways to find new varieties to try is to ask other tomato fanatics. My top priority is superb flavor so I generally plant a few varieties I’ve been happy with in the past, plus a few new ones. The next thing to look for is disease resistance: tomatoes are subject to a wide range of diseases, some of which will raise havoc with future crops if the disease gets into your soil. So why take a chance? The third characteristic to look at is whether the plant is indeterminate as opposed to determinate. Indeterminate tomatoes produce until frost; determinates tend to ripen most of the fruit all at once. That’s fine if you want to do a lot of canning or sauce-making; not so great for a steady supply of tomatoes. You also need to consider how you plan to consume your crop. Do you want slicers for BLTs, cherries to eat out of hand, medium-sized tomatoes for salads or Romas for sauce? The following varieties should do well under New Hampshire growing conditions: extra early tomatoes (Early Cherry, Supersweet 100, Currant, Cosmonaut Volkove, Early Cascade, Daybreak), early tomatoes (Cascade, Sunrise, Springset, Early Girl, Lemon Boy, Moscovich, Gold Dust, Taxi), and main season tomatoes (Ultra Sweet, Basket Vee, Better Boy, Big Beef, Harvest Vee, Celebrity, Jet Star, Supersonic).

 

Whether you grow your own plants from seed (started at the END of March, please) or buy plants already started, the ideal transplant is bushy, less than 6 inches tall and as broad as it is high. Harden plants off before transplanting into the garden, and water them in with a starter fertilizer. Concrete reinforcing wire makes a great cage to put in at the time of planting. An even supply of moisture during the growing season will help guarantee a spectacular crop.

 

Lastly, attempts to extend the season in the fall usually have limited success. Once daytime temperatures drop below 55 degrees F for a week, tomatoes left on the vine will have an inferior taste when they do ripen. They’re also more susceptible to rot. Sometimes it’s better to cut your losses, harvest the tomatoes and bring them indoors to ripen on the counter. The flavor will still rival that of anything you can buy at the store!

 

Call the UNH Cooperative Extension's Family, Home & Garden Education Center 's Info-Line toll-free at 1-877-3984769 for "Practical Solutions to Everyday Questions." Trained volunteers are available to answer your questions Monday through Friday from 9 am to 2 pm .

 

By Margaret Hagen, UNH Cooperative Extension Educator, Hillsborough County